The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Lira, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | System of land ownership and greed have been identified as the major causes of increasing land disputes in the Lango sub-region.
In Lango, land is customarily owned where pieces of land belong to particular households, communities, and or the clan. Since there is no proof of ownership, everyone wants to use the same piece of land resulting in land disputes.
Records show that over 70 percent of cases reported to court are either land or land-related.
Speaking during the ongoing National Land Awareness Week 2023 in Lira City under the theme; “Providing Land Rights Information for Enhanced Production and Sustainable Development,” Godfrey Salaam Ngobi, the Registrar at Lira High Court Circuit, explained that the court is overwhelmed with a number of land-related cases arising from boundary issues and greed which may need an additional circuit judge to handle the matter.
Ngobi who expressed concern over the breakdown of the Lango Cultural Institution wants the matter addressed. He asked cultural and religious institutions to play their role in addressing matters of land among their subjects.
David Kennedy Odongo, the Alebtong LCV Chairperson believes that land conflicts are to blame for the underdevelopment among the people of Lango especially when the court is involved.
Abdunassar Olekwa, the Acting Commissioner of Land Administration at the Ministry of Lands, says that the land awareness exercise seeks to sensitize the people of Lango on their land rights, ownership, and how to solve disputes.
Joe Olang Erik, the Second Deputy Prime Minister at Lango Cultural Foundation blamed men for the land wrangles which he says always affect the women who are left to cater for the children.
Lucy Philips Okidi says women are suffering at the hands of in-laws who struggle to divide the land left by their husbands thus spurring land wrangles.
In Uganda, the percentage of registered land still stands at 22 percent and most of this has been secured in the last 13 years with the establishment of the Land Information System. However, the ministry hopes to have registered at least 26 percent by the year 2030.
The Ministry has been championing the documentation of land rights and during the week, the ministry will be issuing certificates of customary ownership and also providing legal services in the mobile legal clinics.
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